Definitive
by alternativeaccount
Summary: She was fourteen when it happened. One second her life was great, and then she was snatched away from it in the blink of an eye. Three years later, she's back, and doing her best to fix things. The only question is, have they changed too much? Fax/AH.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One; Max**

I never asked for any of this.

I guess thats the beauty of life; you don't have a choice. It's not something where you get a practice run - if you make a mistake, you're stuck with it. I've made more than my fair share of them in my seventeen years, and somehow the consequences have led me here. Whether that was a good thing or a bad thing I still have to decide.

"Your stuff is all back in your room." Val said nervously, fingering her gold bracelet. It was a habit that I recognised, and instantly stilled my own hands from playing with the bandages around my own arm. I nodded, hating how awkward this whole thing was. Just over three years ago the woman before me had been the closest thing that I'd ever had to a mother, and now she felt like a stranger.

Wait. Scratch that. _I_ felt like the stranger. Val was the same person she had been back then, I was the one who'd changed. And not for the better.

"Can I... could I please take a shower?" I asked unsurely, hating how pathetic I sounded.

Val blinked. "Right, of course. You can always have a shower here, remember? So, why don't you do that, and get yourself settled in or whatever, and I'll bake some cookies?"

She'd remembered. Something about that startled me; brownies had always been Ella's favorite, but she'd remembered that cookies were mine. It should have made me happy to be here, but it didn't. All I could concentrate on was the fact that I was about to take a nice, hot shower; showers at Dad's house had been as short as possible - he'd given up paying for the hot water ages ago, and despite scraping money in as best I could (Mainly by dominating at local poker games, pool... pretty much any betting game out there) hot water had still been a rareity.

She dissapeared into the kitchen, and I shouldered my backpack and headed up to my room, dumping on the bed and resisting the urge to sigh in relief as I looked around the familiar room and knew for the first time in a long time that I was safe. It was a strangely unfamiliar feeling, but I assumed that only time would tell whether or not I liked it.

Surveying the room once more and content that nothing had changed (other than the addition of the minimal amount of things that I'd brought from LA) I finally headed for my shower.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~#M#~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

"Max!" Ella chirped as she appeared through the back door, freshly out of school. I smiled at her as she bounced around, clearly strongly fighting the urge to hug me. I appreciated that, but her astounding energy was still making me a little more than nervous. Energy was always a bad thing.

"There's brownies behind you, Ells." Dr M said, clearly trying to diffuse some of her youngest daughters energy - or at least re-direct it at the brownies. Thankfully, it seemed to work. The fifteen-year-old squealed, spinning to grab two off the tray and stuff one into her mouth faster than I'd even thought possible. I offered her a little grin, biting into a cookie and resisting the urge to close my eyes in contement. Closing my eyes would be a weakness; years of paranoia had taught me better.

"I missed you." Ella said, some of her energy dissipating as she slid into the chair opposite me with a fresh handful of brownies. "Are you looking forward to school? You'll get to see everyone again."

I nodded, refusing to admit that I was really dreading it. It was going to be awful, seeing the people who I'd left behind again. I had no doubts that most, if not all of them, would want nothing to do with me, and even if they did, what was I going to do? Pretend like nothing had happened? It wouldn't work, even if I did. Things had changed. _I _had changed. I was a completely different person to the person that I had been three years ago.

Ella continued to chat idly, whilst I rubbed my bandaged wrists under the table. The bandage, whilst it was serving it purpose, was incredibly itchy and I ached to just take it off. Unfortunately, I couldn't. The bandages had to stay on, and I just had to deal.

"Did Mom tell you that Fang's going to drive us to school in the morning?"

My head shut up, thoughts jarred violently from my bandaged arms at her words.

"What?"

"Uh..." Ella seemed surprised by reaction, and suddenly unsure as she glanced over at her mother. "Fang. He drives me to school. So we just figured, y'know... he said that he's happy to drive you, too..."

I fought to reighn my emotions back in. "Oh, right. Well, that's cool, I guess." It came out as more than a question, and I noted that my hands were shaking under the table. "Can you just excuse me for a moment? I have to go and... check that I turned the shower off properly."

"Are you alright, Max?" Val asked, concerned, as she looked over from the dishes, a kitchen towel slung over her shoulder - the perfect image of domesticity.

I stood slowly, clenching my hands into fists so she didn't notice that they were shaking. "Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just... conserving the water. Saving the environment, all that jazz."

It was a poor excuse and I knew it, but I had to get out of there and pull myself together. Taking the stairs three at a time thanks to my long-legged frame, I was in my room with the door shut and locked tightly behind me in record time.

It was stupid, really. Freaking out over something as trivial as seeing my ex-best friend for the first time in over two years. I guess I was worried about what he was going to say. If he was going to say, "I told you so" and dredge up memories that I'd long since locked away, or whether he was going to hate me and pretend like we'd never been friends. Probably the latter, not that I blamed him.

Sighing, I flopped down on my bed and stared blankly up at the ceiling. I was only seventeen, so what had this all been put on me? Why did my psychopathic father have to come back for me? Better yet, why did he have to be my father?

Apparently, there was only one clear thing in this whole mess that I called my life.

Life sucks, and then you die.


	2. Chapter 2

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~#-#~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Chapter Two - Max  
****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~#-#~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

New phrase.

Life sucks, high-school blows, and _then_ you die.

Does that sound more accurate? I think it does. Although that might have a lot to do with the fact that I was currently trying to force down a slice of toast, whilst waiting for the torture to begin. The best part being? Ella was ill. Which meant that it would just (as far as I was aware) be Fang, his half-sister and I.

Which, in turn, spelt out just one thing as far as I was concerned: _awkward._

"You nervous about school, sweetheart?" Val asked, running a hand through my hair, and quickly retracting it when I tensed and flinched a little despite myself. She mumbled a sorry, turning her head not quite fast enough to hide the hurt in her eyes. I frowned, dropping the half of my toast slice that I'd been unable to stomach onto the plate, before getting wise and slipping it to Total under the table. By the time that I heard the tell-tale signs of the front door opening and Val turned around, there was no trace of the toast left.

I grabbed my satchel, ready to leave by the time that Nick strode confidently into the room, swirling his keys around one of his fingers. He didn't show any emotion when he saw me, just nodded at the front door and offered Val a small half-smile. It was more than I'd expected. Sighing, I shouldered the bag and grabbed my jacket as I headed out - making to climb into the back of the car next to Nudge, but she shook her head and held up a sign saying, "I promised Ella." and nodded to the front seat.

Sighing, and shaking my head a little, I did as she said, climbing into the passenger seat; dumping my satchel on the floor as Fang climbed in.

I muttered a quick "Thanks for the lift." before turning back to the window, fully expecting Fang to either ignore me, or turn the radio up, in response.

Instead, his eyes smiled and he shrugged. "Annoy me too much and you walk the four miles to school."

Caught completely off guard, I blinked, and then blurted out; "You're talking to me?"

Part of me wondered whether Ella had told him why I'd come back, and what had been happening, but by the fact that his eyes kept flickering back to my bandaged wrists I guessed probably not. Or she hadn't told him all of it, at least, which was a welcome relief. My life story was something that I'd much prefer to keep to myself.

"Unless you don't want me to." Fang said, suddenly stiff; hands white-knuckled on the steering wheel.

"Of course I want you to," I groaned, banging the side of my head off the window and wishing that - for once - I'd just kept my mouth shut. "I just didn't think _you'd_ want to after-"

"After you ditched me for all of your new friends in LA?" He shrugged, and I frowned a little. Honestly, it was only logical that he'd assumed that my new "friends" had forced the two of us apart over the three years since I'd left. Part of me wanted to tell him that it wasn't what had happened, but my self-preservation instinct was too strong, warning me that it was too early to reveal the truth to him. He was still angry, that much was clear, but I was a little relieved that he was trying to make an effort, at least.

Besides, he didn't give me a chance to reply before continuing with his unusually long spiel, "Wasn't it you who told me that all people deserve a second chance? Plus, since they've given your your old schedule, I'm pretty much stuck with you; might as well make the best of it."

I honestly didn't think it had been me that had said that everyone deserved a second chance, and even if it had been, I certainly didn't deserve one.

I'd long since run out of chances.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~#M#~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

"You look pale." Fang commented mildly as he killed the engine in the car park, glancing in the rear-view mirror and raising an eyebrow when he noted that Nudge was enthusiastically dancing to whatever was playing on her iPod. I shrugged a little, my eyes roaming over the school and taking in the sight of it before grabbing my jacket and pulling it on, making sure to tug it down to cover the bandages. Fang raised an eyebrow, but said nothing as he tapped Nudge's knee to drag her from her music-induced world, and the three of us piled out of the car.

People were staring, that was the first thing that I noticed. I guess that kind of made sense; these were the same people that had been around for my sudden dissapearance. One Friday I was there, the next Monday I was gone. No warning, not even for me.

"Chin up." Fang said quietly. "No one other than Lissa or Bridget would have the balls to say anything to you anyway."

I snickered a little at that. If either of them said anything, I was fairly sure that my new attitude would quickly put them in their places. Fang glanced at me out of the corner of his eye and allowed a small grin.

"You and Lissa are over then?" His voice had made it clear, but I figured that it was best to clarify before I (not so) accidently started something.

"Way over." Fang said, his face returning to its usual blank mask. I rolled my eyes, allowing a small half smile as Nudge bounced towards her friends with the usual enthusiasm. Apparently some things never change. Bracing myself, I nodded forwards to Fang and then led the way into the school. Somehow, Val had gotten my old schedule back to how it had been before - including homeroom - and I was sercretly a little relieved that she had. At least now I knew what to expect.

As I'd predicted; Lissa, Bridget, Sam, Aaron and Jacob were sat on the same cluster of tables as they had been last time. Iggy and Nudge were already occupying two of the seats to what had been our usual table. Ella had informed me that no-one had been allowed to take my seat from where I'd sat before - the one between Iggy and Fang - but I was still a little reluctant to sit in it.

Sitting there, some part of me reasoned, was like saying that nothing had changed. Like pretending that we were still the same five people, when we clearly weren't. Pretending that nothing had changed.

My mind was whirring, trying to think of a good reason not to sit there, but it was too late - Fang pressed his hand on my shoulder and steered my into me seat, pressing me carefully into it as if he could hear my very thoughts. Well, crap. Iggy glanced up at me as I sat down, and I instantly noted that his eyes weren't the same milky blue that they had been when I'd left. I really hoped that meant that the surgery had worked, and he was no longer classed as legally blind. We'd all been holding our breath and hoping that it had last time that I'd talked to him, but shortly after that contact between LA and Arizona had been cut off.

I'd almost assumed that since Fang had made an effort to accept me back, and he was definately the more stubborn of the two of them, Iggy would be in the same boat. Apparently, I'd been wrong. He turned to greet me with cold eyes, and didn't so much as acknowledge that I was there before turning back to Nudge and striking up a conversation. Nudge seemed torn, but eventually seemed to decide that - for the moment - it was easier just to pacify Iggy, so begrudgingly started up the Nudge Channel.

"Oh my god," I heard a familiar high-pitched voice drawl. "Look what the cat dragged in."

Mentally groaning, I turned my head to where Bridget and Lissa were now stood behind me, glowering at me. I rolled my eyes, offering them a grin.

"It tried to bring you two first, but couldn't support the weight of your inflated egos." I shrugged. "You win some, you lose some, I guess. Sorry."

"Haha," Bridget snapped. "I thought you'd skipped off the LA and ditched these losers?"

Nudge glowered at the two of them, but bit her tongue; Iggy was glaring at the two of them with hatred in his eyes, but, as I'd expected, Fang remained outwardly unfazed.

"I decided that I just couldn't go another day without giving you a verbal beat-down," I answered evenly, with another lazy grin. "Although now that I'm here, I'm thinking that perhaps a physical one would be more appropriate."

That threw them off a little. Before I'd left to LA I'd never really started fights... just finished them. Now, I figured that sometimes, starting a fight was the easiest thing to do. Besides, Lissa and Bridget were clearly unaware of the fact that I was bluffing majorly. I'd promised Dr M that I wouldn't get kicked out... at least not in the first week.

"Like you'd be able to even if you wanted to." Bridget snapped, her eyes narrowing as she fought to retain her cool and calm exterior. Not working.

"Try me." I answered with a raised eyebrow. There was a long silence as Bridget and Lissa started back at me, and the rest of our homeroom glanced between us, and then Miss Marple interrupted - skipping into the room with her usual enthusiasm. Groaning, if only for effect, I turned back to my table and shook my head as the terrible duo retreated to their table.

Lissa and Bridget: 0.

Max: 1.

Not too bad for the first day back.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~#M#~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

Have I mentioned before that I have an affinity for failing anything even vaguely maths related?

No? Well I do. And that list contains not only maths as a whole, but also Chemistry, Physics and Computing. Which is why it sucked that not only did I have maths before break, I then had Computing before lunch. Now that, my friends, is what I call an epic fail.

"You look happy." Fang muttered sarcastically from beside me, his eyes remaining focused on the computer screen.

"Yeah," I shot back. "I'm just thrilled to be sat here, glaring at the screen. Have I ever told you that I just _love_ not knowing what the hell it is that I'm supposed to be doing?"

Fang snickered a little. "Its easy, you just have to run dreamweaver and start up an internet sight all about you."

I nodded a little, and Iggy obviously saw his chance to get a swipe in, keeping his eyes on the screen.

"Make sure that you add in that you spent three years in LA, completely ditching your friends. Actually, I'm sure that you could make an entire page for that fact - it'd let people have a glimpse of your personality that they might not expect. A+ material for sure."

I sighed, but didn't argue back; not because I didn't want to, but because I didn't have any choice. The only even slightly justifiable reason for what had happened was the truth, and I was under no illusions that if I spilt the truth everyone would treat me differently. No, thanks. It just meant that it was going to take a while to win some friends (coughIggycough) back. Fan-freaking-tastic. I sighed, opening a new dreamweaver webpage and typing _"I suck."_ across the page.

"Happy now?" I muttered to Iggy, who glanced over for a long second.

"Better than I was before." He replied with a shrug, turning back to the screen.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~#M#~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

**A/N; I promise that it'll get better soon!**

_**Review replies:**_

_**rachaelmaxwriting4jc, wanna-fly98, roylpain, OSCAR-THE-GROUCH17 and Bandgeekclarinet14 - Thank you guys, so much!  
ISuckAtUsernames - Thanks, and Max will be made more smartassy as it goes on, have no fears :)**_


	3. Chapter 3

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~#-#~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Chapter Three- Max  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~#-#~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

"Are you fucking _kidding me?"_ I snapped, feeling my fists clenching and unclenching at my sides. I have to give Dr. M her due here - she didn't so much as flinch at my rather agressive attitude. "I don't need to see a therapist!"

"Listen," She said calmly, offering me what I assumed was supposed to be an encouraging smile. "Anne reccommended her, and all three of us had a long phone conversation before deciding that this was the best thing for you. You need to talk about what happened-"

"No," I snapped. "I _don't_ need to talk about what happened, I just need everyone to butt the hell out of my personal business and let me get on with my life."

"They said that this might happen," Val sighed with a small shake of her head.

"I don't fucking _care_ what they said!" I shouted, feeling angry tears start to form in the corners of my eyes. "What they need to realise is that Anne didn't go through what I did, this Mrs Kendall bitch didn't go through what I did, and that you _certainly_ didn't-"

"Max," Dr Martinez argued, fire in her eyes as my attitude finally tipped her over the edge. "I don't care what you want. _I _get to decide what's best for you, so for as long as you're stuck here, you'll do as I say."

There was a long pause, and then I frowned. "You think that I'm stuck here? That I couldn't just walk out if I wanted to? That I couldn't just leave you all behind in a heartbeat if I felt like it?"

"Yes," A new voice answered from the doorway, and I spun to come face to face with Ella. It had, briefly, crossed my mind that she was likely to get involved in this mess at some point, but it had never crossed my mind that she might jump in mid-argument. Usually, when she wasn't too hyped up, Ella was fairly shy about voicing her opinions. "Well, that's exactly what I think, at least. Let's face it, Max, we're the only family that you've got left... yours made it pretty clear that they wanted nothing to do with you."

"Ella, she _is_ our family-" Dr M tried, but this time it was me who cut her off.

"But that's just it," I said, holding Ella's eyes with a grim sense of satisfaction and determination. "I'm not, am I, Ella?"

"No!" Ella snapped. "You're _not_ family, you're just some girl whose father my mother divorced. And since we're the only people left who care about you even a little bit, maybe you should start to treat us with a little more respect!"

I could see on her face that she regretted her words as soon as she spoke them, that she'd been as surprised as the rest of us when they'd flown out of her mouth, but it was too late for her to take them back. For a long second the three of us just stood in silence, silent tears falling down Ella's face.

"I'm sorry," She finally whispered, but she didn't say that she hadn't meant it, and part of me was glad. That was the thing about anger: it made you tell the truth, even when it was something that you'd never normally admit.

Part of me was tempted to smile there, but I just nodded, and the two of them seemed to realise that the conversation was officialy over. At that moment in time, it didn't even occurr to me that I'd probably just lost - all I cared about was that, for the first time in three years, someone had been blatantly honest without an ulterior motive, and I'd liked it.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~#-#~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

"You must be Max," The woman in front of me smiled, holding a hand over her desk for me to shake. I merely glanced at it, threw my backpack onto the floor and flopped worldessly into my chair. I expected some kind of reaction, but clearly this woman hadn't been given a degree in psychotherapy for nothing, because the smile remained on her face, and she simply dropped her hand and smoothed her skirt down before sitting. "My name is Mrs Kendall. It's a pleasure to meet you."

It wasn't. She was getting paid for this, no matter how much her fake smile and her words begged me to believe otherwise.

"I wish I could say the same," Was all I bothered to reply with, glancing around the room as if bored. I wasn't, not yet, but it was always a good idea to asses a room before commiting yourself to staying there for any length of time, and a quick 360 gave me all of the answers that I needed. Two doors, one leading to the main office and the other leading to a small cupboard, three windows - two on the nothern wall, facing the quad where some of the students sat a lunch, and one on the other side - bordering on the woods at the back of the school. A metal pot held a series of sharpened pencils and ball-point pens, all of which would make alright weapons if the situation arose.

"The pot's plastic," Mrs Kendall said, clearly spotting my line of vision. "Not a very heedy weapon, if that's what you're thinking."

"Not at all," I lied easily, my eyes meeting hers. "I was just wondering whether that was red marker pen on the side or blood."

She nodded, although her face said that she didn't believe me, and plastered on another fake smile - opening a manilla folder open on her desk and flipping through the pages.

"Alright then, shall we get started?" I didn't say anything, but she'd expected that, and simply continued on regardless. "Your folder is... well, thick, to put it bluntly, and I want to go over some of the more basic and impersonal parts of it before we go over some of the more painful moments, alright?"

I knew that she was trying to gain my trust, but it wasn't going to work.

"Whatever."

"So, your file says that you didn't move back in with your father until three years ago?"

I nodded briefly, and she smiled at me before continuing.

"When you were fourteen? Why was that?"

My eyes narrowed, a reflexive movement that I couldn't control, and my voice came out as a growl when I spoke. "Why don't you tell me? I'm sure it's there on your little file."

She observed my reaction with a raised eyebrow, and then closed the folder. "Perhaps that topic is a little too painful for now. Why don't we go a little further back? Valencia tells me that when you lived with her you had two best friends that attend this school? Nicholas and James? Are the two of you still friends?"

I hesitated, and then my eyes finally took in the sight of the picture behind her, and my eyebrow raised.

"Nice painting," I grinned, finding the ammo that I needed to draw this therapy session to a premature ending. "But aren't you supposed to be _against_ self-harming? Trying a little subliminal messaging, are you?"

Her eyes flew to the picture behind her desk, a hand holding a roazorblade over a bloody wrist, and then her lips formed a swear word.

Bingo.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~#-#~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

_'Where did you get to first period?'_

I glanced down at the note in front of me mutely for a few seconds, taking in Fang's chicken scrawl (apparently, some things _don't_ change) before swearing inwardly. How had it never crossed my mind that people would notice when I dissapeared from first period every monday? How stupid do you get? Scrambling for an answer, I finally scribbled it down and flung the note back, ignoring the disaproving look that the guy behind Fang (Darrel? Daniel? David? ...Devin?) was giving us.

_'Skipped it. Didn't feel like going - history is for nerds.'_

It was a poor excuse, and I couldn't keep it up forever, but it would tide Fang over for this one week and that was all that really mattered. I'd find a way to get out of my therapy sessions soon enough, and then I could move on with my life and forget everything that had happened over the past three years. The sooner the better.

_'You alright about next week?'_

Once again, I stared dumbly at Fang's note, this time for a completely different reason.

_'Next week? What happens next week?'_

_'Crap, I thought Val had told you. My parents are going out of town for a few weeks, so Nudge and I are staying with you.'_

I swore under my breath, unable to think of a reply as anger began to burn in my chest.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~#-#~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

"What the hell were you thinking?" I shouted, pretending not to notice that this was the second time in four days that we'd been stood in my room arguing. "Were you even thinking at all?"

"Max, look," Val sighed, her tone placating. "Sophie and Daniel got called out onto a business trip at short notice - we _always_ look after Fang and Nudge, just like they always looked after you and Ella. I couldn't say no to them."

"Like hell you couldn't! This house is supposed to be the one place that I can relax! That I don't have to _pretend_. What am I supposed to do now? Pretend that everything's alright when really it's not? Thanks a fucking lot for that, Val. Thanks a lot."


	4. Chapter 4

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~#-#~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Chapter Three- Max  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~#-#~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

I tried to keep a brave face for the rest of the week, I swear, but by first period Monday I was starting to wear thin.

"So," Mrs Kendall said as she sat down neatly, smiling at me as I slunk into my chair. "Your mother contacted me."

"Step-mother." I corrected easily. Mrs Kendall raised an eyebrow and a grin flitted across her face.

"Yes, well, we'll get on to that." She said, and jotted a few notes down onto her pad. I instantly regretted mentioning anything, and resisted the urge to groan aloud. "She mentioned that you'll have some family friends staying with you this week, is that right? Including, correct me if I'm wrong, Nicholas? How do you feel about that, Max?"

And there it was, the trademark question in all its glory. "_How do you feel about that?"_ Could she get any more stereotypical?

I shrugged, and Kendall frowned when I didn't make any indication of a verbal response.

"You're defensive." She commented mildly, but I could see the skin around her perfectly made-up eyes.

"Am I?"

Mrs Kendall opened her mouth, and her face warned me that she was likely to call me something along the lines of an immature brat, and then she visibly changed her mind and leant forwards. I was still impressed with myself; pissing her off was proving no harder than pissing everyone else off – psychology degree or no.

"Tell me something, Max. Why do you feel the need to compulsively point out that Valencia is not your mother, but, in fact, your step-mother?"

"Because its the truth." I answered, raising an eyebrow.

"I agree with that statement," She said with a nod, but didn't move back across to her side of the table. "But your file says that you lived with her for... an extended period, even after your father moved out. Why was that?"

I tensed, but allowed myself to shrug as naturally as possible. "Because Dad's job required him to be away for a long time, and I had friends here. I don't see how that's important."

"You called her Mom when you lived with her, correct?"

I contemplated lying to her, but even I could see the green note at the top that probably meant that Val had told her everything, so settled for nodding again, instead.

"So why the change now?" She asked, curiosity clear in her eyes. I frowned a little.

"A year's a long time."

And if that wasn't the truth, I didn't know what was.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~#M#~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

"Its going to be some much fun staying over with you and Ella!" Nudge squeaked as the four of us climbed into Fang's car. Her and Ella immediately had a headphone from each of their iPods into their ears - apparently, they were trying to see if they could get the same song to play at exactly the same time to try and maximise the volume (although I was a little nonplussed as to why they didn't just keep their respective headphones and iPods to themselves, reasoning that it would probably have had the same effect).

Fang glanced in the rear-view mirror at the two of them before turning up the CD that he was playing. I recognised it with a small grin.

"You still have this?" I laughed, knocking the volume up a further few notches. The first song flitted to the second and I smiled as the lyrics formed on my lips; the homemade CD had been one of the few presents I'd given Fang for his fourteenth birthday, a long year before things had started to go bottom up.

"It's decent music." Fang defended without taking his eyes off the road.

"Well," I mused aloud. "I always did have good taste."

Fang snickered a little, but I didn't notice the way that his eyes flitted once again to the bandages on my arms. There was a long pause as he studied them carefully out of the corner of his eyes, and I fought to keep my gaze off them and pretend not to notice. From the look on his face, I wasn't particularly successful.

"You're bleeding." He said after an extended pause, and my eyes flashed to my bandages where - sure enough - a small patch of crimson had begun to blossom.

"You've _got_ to be kidding me." I groaned, letting my head rest against the window and making no move to stem the bleeding as we drove towards the house. It made more sense to just leave it and fix it up at home, in the privacy of the bathroom. It seemed that just when I had lulled myself into the false sense of security that I wouldn't re-open the gashes that lay there, karma had to give me a kick up the ass. Fantastic, right?

"What happened to them?" Fang asked hesitantly, clearly already able to tell that I was unlikely to give him an answer.

"Nothing," I answered tersely. "It'll be fine."

"Right," He said, hands suddenly tense on the steering wheel. "And I suppose that you skipped first period because you couldn't be bothered again today? Bullshit, Max. I know you better than that."

"What do you want me to say, Fang?" I sighed, feeling annoyance building inside me. "A lot of things can change in a year. Did you just expect things to be the same? Because there isn't a chance in hell. Too much has happened since then, stuff that you wouldn't understand."

"And how the hell can you know that?" He snapped as he slammed the brakes on in the driveway. Part of me analysed the girls' shocked faces in the mirror before they bailed out of the car and hurriedly headed into the house.

"I just do," I snapped back, yanking the handle of the door seconds after Fang locked it automatically. My whole body tensed and I felt every nerve in my body tingling. "Let me out of the car, Fang."

"Tell me what happened."

"Let me out of the fucking car!" I yelled, losing my cool completely and slamming the heels of my trembling hands off the side panelling of the door. My breathing was hitching in the back of my throat as I fought to stay calm, blinking back frenzied tears. Fang's hand tried to gently touch my shoulder but I jerked away, chest heaving.

"You're claustraphobic." He observed with a frown, concern in his eyes. "You weren't before. So it had something to do with small spaces."

The wall holding back my memories was threatening to break and I found myself sinking back into my chair as the panic forced the air out of my lungs and the world started to go dark. Some part of my mind registered Fang cursing in the background and a loud clicking noise.

"Please," I managed around frantic gasps. "Just open the doors... please, just let me out."

"Crap, Max. Are you alright? You look like you're gonna pass out or something. Look, the doors are open. I didn't mean to scare you, I just wanted some answers."

I didn't look at him, just fumbled for the handle and bailed out of the car, heading into the house and ignoring Val's and the girls questions as I bolted for the bathroom. I reached there seconds before the dam broke, and a tirade of memories filled my head; somehow, I managed to slam the lock across the dooor and collapse onto my knees in front the toilet just in time to empty my stomach into it, and the tears finally began to fall as I grabbed a towel and held it to my face to quieten my sobs.

It was ridiculous, really, and I knew that. Fang would never hurt me, would he? I could trust him, couldn't I?

A part of me hated that I didn't know the answers to those questions.

"Max?" His voice called softly through the door a few moments later, accompanied by a small knock. "Look, I'm sorry. I was a complete dick back there; I'm just... frustrated, I guess."

I didn't answer, and I heard him sigh softly. The sound was followed by a small thud and then a slight screeching noise that took me a second to puzzle through; if I was right, he'd slid down the back of the door and was now sat just at the other door. My crying having nearly completely stopped just as suddenly as it had come, I half-crawled, half-dragged myself to the other side of the door and pressed my back against the wooden panelling.

On the other side, I could bearely hear the gentle breathing of the person who had once been my best friend.

And now a wall lay between us, in more ways than one.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~#M#~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

Fang sat outside the bathroom door until my grumbling stomach got the better of me and, having re-bandaged my wrists and cleaned my face to get rid of all possible tear-stains, I regretfully head out through the door on the side that led into my bedroom, and headed out of the door. Fang glanced up from the floor, and offered me a small grin.

"I've gone numb," He told me easily, throwing his arms up. "Help me?"

Rolling my eyes, I reached out and hoisted him to his feet. There was a long second where I wondered if he'd say anything, and then he grinned again. "Val said that our dinner's are there to heat up. Thing is, all of that waiting around has made me hungry, and right now your dinner's just sat there, ready for the taking..."

The two of us were off in an instant, leaping over obstacles - such as Magnolia, Val's basset hound cross that had just arrived home today after having a hip operation and was all decked out in a head collar - as we went. Finally, we skidded into the kitchen at precisely the same time and came face-to-face with Valencia and an FBI agent that I recognised instantly. Crap.

"Max," Agent Walker smiled, her eyes skimming over me as if to check for any pyhsical damage. "How lovely to see you again. Don't panic, I'm just here for a check-up. Has there been any problems here?"

"No." I said tersely, and then mentally corrected myself that there hadn't been any problems until _she'd_ turned up. "Why are you here?"

"Max," Val said warningly, brown eyes locking on my figure and seeming to realise that Fang was there for the first time.

"Just a check-up. I wanted to talk to Val about your therapy sessions and how well you've readjusted to life here." Fang had tensed at the mention of therapy sessions, and I didn't miss the fact that he was now standing closer to me than ever - although I couldn't puzzle out _why._ "Why don't you and Nicholas here get your dinner, and I'll have a chat to Val and then get out of your hair, alright?"

I frowned, but reached for my plate that Val had shoved in the microwave upon, probably, hearing our steps on the stairs. I wasn't bothered by the prospect of eating it cold, and Fang seemed to share my sentiments, the two of us grabbing the plates and heading through into the lounge. I placed my plate on the coffee table, and settled down on the floor in front of it, flicking the TV on to cover the noise of Val and Anne talking, and the girls squealing upstairs.

"So," Fang said conversationally. "Therapy, huh? I'm assuming that takes place first period on a Monday."

I glared at him and he held his hands in the air, but I wasn't fooled. If there was one thing that I knew about Fang, it was that when curiosity got the better of him, he didn't stop until he'd gotten the answers that he wanted.

Which pretty much meant that I was screwed.


End file.
